Packing machines



Feb. 6, 1968 A. SCHMERMUND PACKING MACHINES 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 20, 1966 INVENTOR:

ures I) swam mmu 3y: 0w 1 41a;

nromveys Feb. 6, 1968 A. SCHMERMUND 3,367,221

PACKING MACHINES Y /@Z 1 T INVENTOR:

ALFRED San/15R nun z) ATrORNEYS Feb. 6, 1968 A. SCHMERMUND PACKING MACHINES 6 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed May 20, 1966 INVE NTQR:

M We 0 saummnuaw Arranugys A. SCHMER PACKING MACHINES Feb. 6, 1968 6 Sheets- 4 Filed M y 1966 mvuvr ALFRED Sui/Num By: M (07% IffdkNs/S Feb. 6, 1968 A. SCHMERMUND 3,

PACKING MACHINES Filed May 20, 1966 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 Fig.5

INVE NT 0 R: ALFRED S'GHIIERHUNZ) 13y: 0mm mm RTTOQNEA;

Feb. 6, 1968 A. SCHMERMUND 3,

PACKING MACHINES Filed May 20, 1966 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 INVENTOR ALFRED SCH/IERHUNZJ "B M Q amaze/ Arron/Em United States Patent 3,367,221 PACKING MACHINES Alfred Schmermund, 62 Kornerstrasse, Gevelsberg, Westphalia, Germany Filed May 20, 1966, Ser. No. 551,708 Claims priority, application Germany, May 22, 1965, Sch 37,108 6 Claims. (Cl. 83-88) The invention relates to packing machines and is an improvement in or modification of the packing machine disclosed and claimed in my previous patent No. 3,274,- 870, issued Sept. 27, 1966.

More specifically, the invention relates to arrangements for feeding separate portions of wrapping material, which overlap each other, to a wrapping station.

It is an object of the present invention to provide feeding means for a web of wrapping material from which portions are cut off without the necessity of operating such feeding means at a variable speed. Thereby a considerable simplification of the machine can be obtained.

The invention achieves this object by providing means for retarding or stopping the feed of a portion of wrap ping material 'after it has been cut from the web until a second portion of wrapping material which has been subsequently out has reached the first portion and an overlap of the trailing end of the first portion with the leading end of the second portion has been effected.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become obvious to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the invention: when read with reference to the appended drawings, which are given by way of example and in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates, partly in section, an elevational view of a cutting and feeding arrangement of the invention;

FIG. 2 is generally similar to FIG. 1, but several parts are omitted, and the arrangement is shown in 'a different operative position;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are similar to FIG. 2, but showing the arrangement in two further different positions;

FIG. 5 is a view, partly in section, of the arrangement of FIG. 1, the view being taken in the direction of arrow W, the wrapping material and various parts of the arrangement being omitted; and

FIG. 6 somewhat diagrammatically illustrates various drive and correlating means for the arrangement of FIGS. 1 to 5.

The arrangement of FIGS. 1 to 5 comprises a cutter having two cutter blade holders 3 and 4 secured by clamps 5 and 6 to a rotatable shaft 12. The cutter blade holders 3 and 4 carry cutter blades'l and 2 secured thereto by screws 11.The cutter holders 3 and 4 have lugs 9 and 7 respectively through which set screws 10 and 8 extend which press the cutter blades 1 and 2 into abutting engagement with stops 3' and 4' provided on the cutter holders 3 and 4 and ensuring the correct position of the cutter blades 1 and 2. p

The cutter is positioned for cooperation with a stationary counter member 14 mounted on one of two guides 50 for guiding a web 49 of wrapping material, which may be a metal foil, to the cutter and its counter member 14. Two cooperating feed rollers 15 are provided which feed the Web 49 to the guides 50 and thence to the cooperating cutter and counter member 14.

The feed rollers 15 are mounted on shafts and 21 and are secured to gear wheels 70 and 71 which mesh with each other. The gear wheel 71 meshes also with a gear wheel 72 which in turn meshes with a gear wheel 73 on a shaft 89. A gear wheel 74 on the shaft 89 is rotatable jointly with the gear wheel 73 and meshes with 3,367,221 Patented Feb. 6, 1968 a gear wheel 79. The gear wheel 72 is rotatably mounted on a mounting plate 76 which is turnable about the shaft 21 and lockable in a desired position by means of a set screw 77 engaging a curved slot 78 in the mounting plate 76. The gear wheel 72 is driven by the gear wheel 73 which is exchangeable against other gear wheels of diiferent sizes, hence the necessity for adjustment of the position of the mounting plate 76. It will be appreciated that the length of web 49 fed by the rollers 15 during a predetermined time depends on the size of the exchangeable gear wheel. The gear wheel 79 is jointly rotatable with a toothed wheel meshing with a toothed belt 80 which in turn meshes with a toothed wheel 81.

Adjacent to the feed path for the web 49 and below the cooperating cutter and counter member 14, a suction belt 54 is provided which has perforations 68 and which is entrained over three belt rollers 60, 61 and 62, the roller 60 being jointly rotatable with the toothed wheel 81 and thus drives the suction belt 54. The suction belt 54 slides over a suction chamber 57 having openings 69 and being connected by a hose 102 to a suction pump (not shown) through a suction valve 101 shown in FIG. 6.

Adjacent the belt roller 60 but at the opposite side of the suction belt 54, a suction block 27 is provided which has holes 28 'and is connected by a hose 103 to the suction valve 101.

As shown in FIG. 5, the drive of the roller 60 is transmitted by a toothed belt 82 to a toothed wheel 84 meshing with a further toothed belt 83 for driving a further toothed wheel 85 for rotating a roller 40 which in turn drives a belt 41 guided by a stationary guide plate 42 above feed table 39. A further feed table 39 is aligned with the fed table 39 but separated therefrom by an idling guide roller 38 arranged for cooperating with guide rollers 36 and 37. A displacable idling feed roller 30 60- operates with a driven feed roller 30 (FIG. 5) keyed to a shaft driven by the toothed belt 82.

The idling feed roller 30 is mounted on a holder 31, which together with a single-armed lever 32 and a double-armed lever 33 forms a lever parallelogram arrangement the levers 32 and 33 being respectively turnable about the shafts 34 and 35. For operating the lever parallelogram arrangement, the end of the lever 33 remote from the holder 31 carries a cam follower 108 cooperating with an end c'am 107 keyed to a shaft 106, the follower 108 and the end cam 107 being urged towards each other by spring means not shown.

A pair of conveyor chains 87 carry a plurality of pusher members 47 for pushing cigarette blocks 46 along the feed tables 39' and 39, the pusher members extending through longitudinal slots in the feed tables 39', 39 and in the roller 38.

As can be seen from FIG. 6, the arrangement is driven by a motor driving a gear wheel 93 meshing with gear wheels 92 and 94. The gear wheel 92 drives a shaft 91 carrying two toothed wheels 88 for driving the pair of chain conveyors 87 with the pusher members 47. The gear wheel 94 is keyed to a shaft 96 for driving a toothed wheel 112 keyed to the shaft 96, the toothed wheel 112 driving a chain 111 which is entrained about a further toothed wheel 112 shown in FIG. 5 for driving a toothed wheel 113 meshing with a toothed belt which in turn drives a toothed wheel 114 keyed to the shaft 12 which carries the cutter. The said further toothed wheel 112 also drives the toothed wheel 75 meshing with the toothed belt 80. The toothed wheel 75 is rotatable jointly with the gear wheel 79 (see FIG. 1) meshing with the gear Wheel '74 driving the shaft 89 with the gear wheel 73 and thereby operates the feed rollers 15 through the gear wheels 72, 71 and 70.

The toothed belt 80 driven by the toothed wheel 75 (see FIGS. 1 and 5) drives the toothed wheel 81 and therewith the toothed belts 82 and 83 for rotating the drive roller 60, shaft 96 and belt 41.

As shown in FIG. 6, the shaft 96 is keyed to a bevel gear wheel 104 meshing with a bevel gear wheel 105 for driving a shaft 106 and therewith the cam 107 for operating the lever 33 of the lever parallelogram arrangement. A shaft 97 is rotatable jointly with the bevel gear wheel 104 and rotates a cam 98 cooperating with a cam follower 99 for operating the suction valve 101 which is connected to the hose 103 leading to the suction block 27, whereby to connect the suction block 27 to the suction pump in timed relationship to the operation of the arrangement. The hose 102 leading to the suction chamber 57 is permanently connected to the suction pump through the valve 101. The arrangement described operates as follows:

When the motor 95 is operating the feed rollers are rotated in the directions of the arrows, and the cutter is rotated in the direction of the arrow 1. Thereby, the web 49 is drawn from a storage roll (not shown) by the feed rollers 15 and is fed vertically downwards between the cutter and the counter member 14.

When a predetermined length of web extends downwardly from the counter member 14 the cutter blade 1 cuts a portion A (see FIG. 1) from the web. The suction belt 54 holds the cut portion A by suction and feeds it downwards. When a further predetermined length of web extends downwards from the counter member 14 as shown in FIG. 1 a further portion B is cut by the cutter blade 2. Since the cutting edges of the cutter blades 1 and 2 are arranged close together as shown and since the cutter rotates at a uniform speed in the direction indicated by the arrow J, the length of the web portion A is greater than the length of the web portion B. In the position of the arrangement shown in FIG. 1, a lower part of the portion A lies between the guide rollers 30 and 30, the latter being visible in FIG. 5, the said guide rollers being spaced apart. A cigarette block 46 shown at the right hand side of FIG. 1 is moved by one of the pusher members 47 in the direction indicated by the arrow X towards the depending part of the web portion A, while another cigarette block shown at the left hand side of FIG. 1 is removed by another pusher member from the arrangement.

When the cigarette block 46, has just reached the web portion A, as shown in FIG. 2, the short portion B has been cut off from the web 49, and is held by suction, and has been moved downwards, by the suction belt 54. On further movement of the cigarette block 46, the long web portion A is folded around the leading end of the cigarette block 46 in a U-shaped manner as shown in FIG. 3.

Shortly before the arrangement reaches the position shown in FIG. 3, the suction valve 101 (FIG. 6) is operated to connect the suction block 27 to the suction pump. Thereby, the trailing end of the long web portion A is sucked away from the suction belt 54 and is slidably held by the suction block 27. However, since no appreciable downwardly directed force is exerted on the long web portion A the same remains stationary for a short period of time, during which the short web portion B is further moved downwards so that its leading end portion overlaps the trailing end portion of the long web portion A as shown in FIG. 3. Furthermore, in this position, the leading end of the cigarette block 46 has left the feed table 39', is guided by the guide rollers 36, 37 and 38, and has reached the feed table 39.

Subsequently, the cam 107 in cooperation with the cam follower 108 operates the lever parallelogram arrangement comprising the levers 32 and 33, whereby as shown in FIG. 4 the displaceable feed roller 30 is urged towards the idling feed roller 30' pressing against the overlapping parts of the web portions A and B to feed the portions A and B downwards, the portion B having left the suction belt 54, while the suction block 27 now slidably holds the web portion B away from the suction belt 54. When eventually the trailing end of the short web portion B is leaving the suction block 27 the valve 101 is closed so that the suction block 27 is disconnected from the suction pump. When the trailing end of the short web portion B has left the feed rollers 30, 30, the cam 107 and cam follower 108 operate the lever parallelogram arrangement in the opposite sense whereby the feed rollers 30 and 30' recede from each other, a further long web portion A is cut off from the web 49 by the cutter blade 1 and is fed downwards by the suction belt 54 so that the arrangement reaches again the position shown in FIG. 1 and is ready for a next cycle of operations.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that long and short web portions A and B are alternately cut from the same web 49, that the cut web portions A and B are fed downwards by the suction belt 54, that the long web portion A is moved away from the suction belt 54 and is held by the suction block 27 while the short web portion B continues to be fed downwards by the suction belt 54 whereby the required overlap is obtained, whereupon the long web portion A is released from the suction block 27 and both web portions A and B are further fed downwards by the feed rollers 30 and 30' now cooperating with each other. While in my previous patent referred to hereinbefore the overlap between the two web portions was achieved by accelerating the feed of the web before the short web portion has been cut therefrom, it will be recognized that in the arrangement of the present invention the web 49 may be fed at a uniform speed, only the long web portion A after it has been cut and moved downwards being decelerated to effect the required overlap with the next short web portion B. This is achieved by providing the suction block 27 at the end of the vertical part of the suction belt 54, the suction block 27 acting as decelerating means for the long web portion A. Since it is thus no longer necessary to feed the web 49 at varying speeds, the feeding means for the web 49 used do not include a gear arrangement for providing a variable speed for the web 49. The novel concept of the present invention thus leads to a simplification of the arrangemnts of my said previous patent. In one of the embodimentsof my said previous patent a suction block was provided but that suction block served a different purpose and was arranged at a different part of the arrangement.

Furthermore, the portion of the suction belt 54 between the cutter and the suction block 27 may be of any desired length without substantially reducing the overall output of the arrangement. Therefore, it is no longer necessary for the cutter and its counter member 14 to be arranged close to the feed tables 39, 39', which sometimes is inconvenient. In fact, the cutter and its counter member 14 may be arranged at a comparatively great distance from the feed tables 39, 39, the major part of such distance being bridged by the vertical portion of the suction belt 54, the suction chamber 57 and the feed rollers 30 and 30'.

It should be clearly understood that the specific embodiment hereinbefore described and illustrated is given by way of example and that modifications, omissions and additions are possible without departing from the spirit of this invention.

I claim:

1. In a packing machine in which an article to be packed is embraced in a U-shaped manner by a wrapping having a long and a short portion of wrapping material in overlapping relationship and in which the two wrapping material portions are cut from a single web of said material, the combination of a rotatable cutter, a counter member positioned for cooperation with said cutter, a first cutter blade and a second cutter blade arranged on said cutter for alternately cuttingyby pressure against said counter member, short and long portions of wrapping material from said web, means for feeding said web at a substantially constant speed between said cutter and said counter member, a suction belt movable at a substan- 5 tially constant speed, a portion of said suction belt being arranged along the path of movement of said portions of wrapping material for taking over the feed of each portion of wrapping material after it has been cut from said web, means arranged near that end of said suction belt portion which is remote from said cutter for decelerating the movement of said long portion of wrapping material after it has been released from said suction belt so as to allow the next following short portion of wrapping material to overtake the trailing end of said long portion thereby to effect an overlap between said trailing end of said long portion and the leading end of said short portion.

2.. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein the decelerating means are adapted temporarily to stop movement of said long portion of wrapping material.

3. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein said decelerating means comprise a suction box, valve means for temporarily creating a reduced pressure in said suction box, and means for operating said valve means in timed relationship to the operation of said cutter.

4. A combintion as defined in claim 3, wherein said suction box is arranged for acting on that side of said portions of wrapping material which is remote from said suction belt for distancing said portions of wrapping material from said suction belt while a reduced pressure exists in said suction box.

5. A combination as defined in claim 4, wherein said suction belt portion is arranged vertically and is movable downwards for feeding said portions of wrapping material downwards.

6. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein said suction belt portion is arranged vertically and is movable downwards for feeding said portions of wrapping material downwards.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,107,482 2/1938 Kemp 53230 ANDREW R. JUHASZ, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN A PACKING MACHINE IN WHICH AN ARTICLE TO BE PACKED IS EMBRACED IN A U-SHAPED MANNER BY A WRAPPING HAVING A LONG AND A SHORT PORTION OF WRAPPING MATERIAL IN OVERLAPPING RELATIONSHIP AND IN WHICH THE TWO WRAPPING MATERIAL PORTIONS ARE CUT FROM A SINGLE WEB OF SAID MATERIAL, THE COMBINATION OF A ROTATABLE CUTTER, A COUNTER MEMBER POSITIONED FOR COOPERATION WITH SAID CUTTER, A FIRST CUTTER BLADE AND A SECOND CUTTER BLADE ARRANGED ON SAID CUTTER FOR ALTERNATELY CUTTING, BY PRESSURE AGAINST SAID COUNTER MEMBER, SHORT AND LONG PORTIONS OF WRAPPING MATERIAL FROM SAID WEB, MEANS FOR FEEDING SAID WEB AT A SUBSTANTIALLY CONSTANT SPEED BETWEEN SAID CUTTER AND SAID COUNTER MEMBER, A SUCTION BELT MOVABLE AT A SUBSTANTIALLY CONSTANT SPEED, A PORTION OF SAID SUCTION BELT BEING ARRANGED ALONG THE PATH OF MOVEMENT OF SAID PORTIONS OF WRAPPING MATERIAL FOR TAKING OVER THE FEED OF EACH PORTION OF WRAPPING MATERIAL AFTER IT HAS BEEN CUT FROM SAID WEB, MEANS ARRANGED NEAR THAT END OF SAID SUCTION BELT PORTION WHICH IS REMOTE FROM SAID CUTTER FOR DECELERATING THE MOVEMENT OF SAID LONG PORTION OF WRAPPING MATERIAL AFTER IT HAS BEEN RELEASED FROM SAID SUCTION BELT SO AS TO ALLOW THE NEXT FOLLOWING SHORT PORTION OF WRAPPING MATERIAL TO OVERTAKE THE TRAILING END OF SAID LONG PORTION THEREBY TO EFFECT AN OVERLAP BETWEEN SAID TRAILING END OF SAID LONG PORTION AND THE LEADING END OF SAID SHORT PORTION. 